Rationale

We believe that education should be designed to hone skills and craft experiences.

Teenagers ought to channel their curiosity and direct their energy toward creation and impact.

We believe that mentors may help teams save time and avoid derailing on a slippery slope but instead, head to the right path.

For this reason, YoungLeaders is taking the responsibility to hand-pick mentors. We are looking for two types of mentors:

Lead mentors (weekly)

Mentors to guide teams on a weekly basis, offer them general advice on product development, and unblock them to continue building. These masters are also on a Slack channel with the teams.

Experts (on call)

Mentors who have honed specific crafts and who can guide teams when needed. They are on call and would respond within 24 hours ideally to a specific request from the teams. For the teams, this is an opportunity to spend time exclusively with an expert to discuss whatever needs discussing at that time: business strategy, product design, technical advice, recruiting advice, and so on. The meetings will vary in length from ten-minute check-ins to hour-long product walkthroughs.

In general, If we don't know how to help the teams on a certain issue, we strive to introduce them to someone who does.

Q&A

What’s expected from the mentor?

Mentors give freely of their time, expertise, and connections without expectation of direct remuneration. They guide teams with honest but empathetic advice that is shrewd but loosely held.

What’s the expected commitment?

Lead mentors - commit to YoungLeaders for the duration of the summer cohort (Jul. 2 - Aug. 15). During the first week of the cohort they must spend one half day meeting all of the teams. Mentors acting as lead mentors meet at least once every week with their team for the duration of the program.

Experts - commit to YoungLeaders for the duration of the summer cohort (Jul. 2 - Aug. 15). Mentors acting as experts are on call and would respond within 24 hours ideally to a specific request from the teams. The meetings will vary in length from ten-minute check-ins to hour-long product walkthroughs.

What’s the expected outcome?

Concretely, we want to guide teams to ship products serving real people, to present their best at the Demo Night, and most importantly, to live a productive and memorable summer. On the longterm, we hope to form better creators.

If you have any questions or if you would like to refer a mentor, please email jc@youngleadersgroup.org